


Old Habits and New Revenge

by happywitch416



Series: A Living Legend [1]
Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Angst, Assisted Suicide, Burials, Established Relationship, F/F, Implied Torture, Revenge, Violence, and saving people, but it ends with sweet, in regards to someone having wounds they will not survive and would die in horrible pain, so basically lots of, this is mostly just a further discussion of one of the two reasons Elena left the Legion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:09:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28756410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happywitch416/pseuds/happywitch416
Summary: Elena did not have a great time while she was in the Legion. She was sent to Valenwood to aid in the Dominion's cleansing of the Bosmer from the area along with her partner Lulkrodan. They did not have a great time. When that comes back to haunt her in Skyrim, she makes the choice to avenge her long fallen partner and a stranger she never knew. All leading to a surprising chance of saving another from a similar fate, even if the poor bastard will have scars to match her own to mark his survival.
Relationships: Female Dovahkiin | Dragonborn/Serana
Series: A Living Legend [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2108265
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Old Habits and New Revenge

The man was broken and dying when they found him. 

"Please. Stop the pain." Elena knelt beside him, a glance all she needed to know his wound was a mortal and a painful end. She nodded and his face relaxed as he watched her face even as she pulled the knife from the small of her back. "Thank you." He rasped.

"May her winds guide you home." She slipped the blade between his gaunt ribs and held his hand, his grasp tight until his heart’s last beat. 

The first time Serana had watched Elena give someone funerary rights, she had been confused. But now, a solider never knew if they would come home, Elena hoped someone would do the same for her. She didn’t want people to feel abandoned, even in death. And old habits, beliefs never die. She did know any offer of help would be met with a bemused, slightly sad smile and a shake of Elena’s head, so she settled to getting the saddle off of Ajax to let him roll in the grass while they waited. 

Elena stared outward into the trees ahead of them. Serana reached out but thought better of it, Elena’s eyes were haunted in her otherwise empty face. "Elena?" 

Her eyes fell closed. "That’s…That’s not the first death of that kind I have." She grimaced. "Killing someone should never have to be a mercy." 

"What do you think happened?" 

"Justiciars." she laughed bitterly before she shrugged at Serana’s look. "Aye, many beat people to death, but Justiciars use magic. It was not the blade to bis belly that sealed his fate." Her face turned away from Serana. "Frost astronachs seem to be a favorite, they hit hard." She took a deep shuddering breath. "Its bad death and a slow one. Gutting him further was maybe their idea of kindness. Blood loss." She cast a glance back toward the simple, slightly ill done cairn. "Either is a bad way to die. Even on a battlefield.”

Elena had been quiet all afternoon following a trail only she knew. Now she stared into the fire before finally clearing her throat. "How stupid does a plan have to be before you’ll start calling me an idiot?" 

"I don’t know." Serana studied her carefully. "Why?" 

"Because I picked up the Justiciars’ trail and we’ve been tailing them. We would have come this way anyway but." She gave her a grim smile. "At most they are a mile ahead of us." 

"It bothers you that much?” Serana moved to sit beside her. 

Elena nodded. "It hurts." She lightly smacked her fist against her chest. "Here." Her head hung, chin near touching her chest. "Lulkrodan, he died of a stomach wound too. There was no saving him and I. I couldn’t help him. Wasn’t even able to give him a faster death." 

"It’s what they tried to do to you." Elena nodded, a flicker of phantom pain tensing her body. "Why like that?" 

Elena’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Easy to explain if someone finds the body. Predators are known to disembowel." A long, tired sigh slumped her shoulders. "And its one they can near swear no one will survive." Her grin was dark when she half turned her head towards Serana. "Bad luck for them." 

Serana scooted closer, arm wrapping around her and Elena gently butted her head against hers. "You told me those Bosmer healed you. Couldn’t they save Lulkrodan?" 

"No." She said quietly. "I didn’t hear them when they went for him. He was an orc, but agile, light on his feet, I’ve have met few who are quieter." She wrinkled her nose a moment. "That aren’t vampires. Great scout. But two sneaking up on him..." She shook her head. "He yelled for me and it was enough warning that I was able to move. Almost not fast enough." She tapped her side, fingers jingling the mail she had taken to wearing for armor. "It twisted deep but missed everything in me. Except for blood." She shrugged. "Still doesn’t do you good outside of your body." She was quiet a long time before shuddering "I still feel it sometimes. I’ve never seen a knife that sharp, went right through the straps of my armor. And what they did to Lulkrodan..." Her head fell to her knees before speaking barely above a whisper. "No one should die that way." 

"Did the others kill them then?" 

"Aye, With some help." Came Elena’s very soft reply. "Their armor doesn’t cover everything." She straightened scrubbing a hand across her face. "Back of knees, front of the throat. Eyes." A bemused chuckle left her. "Ardhthia, she was the one in charge and the reason they didn’t kill me too. She yelled at me every morning for three weeks for being stubborn and helping them hunt them down." She pitched her voice. "You’re an idiot even for a Nord, thinking battle will keep you alive, your guts trying to leave you and they have all the sense." Serana smiled at that and Elena’s brows arched a moment. "I didn’t learn that lesson very well." 

"No, you haven’t." They both chuckled. Serana squeezed her. "What do you want to do about them?" 

Elena stared at the fire, darkness and light pitching her eyes to black, a sparkle of fire like burning coals. "I want them to pay." 

Elena's hand went up as she came to a stop and let one knee settle in the dirt as they watched the fire. Serana heard Elena breathe hard through her nose, two fingers brushing against her wrist. She listened too, attacking with a third unseen was foolish. After several tense moments of listening, they heard a twig snap off to their right and the third stepped into the circle of firelight. 

"That’s the last of them." He joined his brethren and Serana felt Elena half sink beside her, saw the barest glances she spared the direction the Altmer had come from. 

"I take left." Elena’s voice no more than a breeze in the leaves. "Pin the middle." Serana nodded, her magic zinging out as Elena fired. It was a shot that shouldn’t have worked, but the Thalmor had been bent forward just enough. They fell sideways on to his brethren, Serana’s target stumbling forward to his knees and the middle let out a shriek. He barely had time to stand before Elena had a hold of him, Serana never adjusted to how fast she could move, didn’t think she had blinked from Elena leaving her side to being by the fire. 

"May your gods leave you." And the knife she kept at her back slid across his throat. She let him fall gurgling into the dirt breathing heavy as she turned to Serana, wild eyed. "I have to." 

"Go." She didn’t need Elena’s help to make sure they were dead. 

Elena stumbled back, a man draped over her shoulders and a woman leaning on her for support. Serana was on her feet, helping slide him to the ground as the woman half fell to sit on the log, eyeing the pile of golden armor-clad bodies. The man groaned, eyes going shut as they got him to the ground. 

It was another gut wound. Elena shook her head. "Don’t you die on me." Serana had went and got Ajax and their packs and Elena kicked hers over to rip their healing kit out. She tilted his head up. "Come on now, there’s worse." She tilted a potion down his throat and didn’t wait for it to kick in before she set to putting him back together. 

The man slept peacefully, the woman dozing too beside him. Elena had hauled the bodies away, out of sight from their victims while muttering about wolves. Now she sat bleary eyed as she leaned against the other log, head resting against Serana’s thigh. 

"Are you okay?" Serana asked quietly, her fingers smoothing through her hair. Elena nodded slowly. "That’s not convincing, love." 

Elena huffed. "I am covered in blood and gods know what else." Her head tipped back to look at Serana. "I want a bath. In the nice one we have in Proudspire. With a bottle of spiced wine and a new book." 

"Oh, and not me?" Elena broke into a grin. "I see how it is." 

Elena snorted. "When was the last time we didn’t share one?" 

"That time you got knocked into the fish bait on the docks." Serana made a face.

"Ugh." Elena shuddered. "Never thought I’d get that smell out of my nose." 

"We didn’t get it out of your clothes." Serana reminded her. 

"And I liked that shirt." She sighed dramatically. "And I couldn’t even yell at the damn goat." Her eyes narrowed. "And no one ever admitted as to who let the goat on to the dock." 

"Do you blame them? We all heard you swearing like a sailor for a week." Elena just grinned. They watched the fire for a time, her fingers back to smoothing through Elena’s hair, getting caught in the occasional tangle and gently working it out. "Really, Elena, are you?" 

Elena sighed deeply before staring across the fire at their new companions. "I am." She said simply. "I know I should feel a little guilty for killing them, and for wanting revenge. Not exactly the behavior befitting of Kyne’s Champion." She said wryly. She watched them for several heartbeats, mouth turning up at the corner in a smile when the woman laced her fingers with the man’s in their sleep. "But they will live and I can’t feel guilty for that. Nor apologize for my actions." The sharp hiss of an almost laugh left her. "I should not have let you come along." 

Serana leaned over until she could see the half smile on Elena’s face. "You aren’t getting rid of me that easily." 

Elena tipped back her waterskin, a half smirk appearing on her face. "Not without tying you to a tree." At the affronted noise that left Serana, Elena burst into a fit of giggles. 

"You’re terrible." 

Elena tilted her head back again, a soft smile on her face. "And yet you still love me." 

Serana shook her head with a smile of her own before leaning down to kiss her. "That I do.'


End file.
